The Daily Show has announced little known South African comic Trevor Noah as Jon Stewart’s replacement, and going with an unknown talent is an understandable move for such an iconic show. (Some initial media reports predictably referred to this South African as “African-American” because they’re afraid to say “black,” because PC.) But speaking of PC and compromised comics, the furor that has erupted over some of Noah’s old un-PC tweets »

I’m too old to stay up for Saturday Night Live any more, but I wish I had been able to monitor the outrage on social media among the Social Justice Warrior set this last weekend, when SNL took down both Starbucks and the whole swollen transgenderism fetish in one fell swoop. If you missed it too, it is definitely worth two minutes of your time for this: »

Back finally to an old topic leftover from the climate inquisition a few weeks back. One of our lefty commenters thought it important to raise the issue that I don’t publish “peer-reviewed” articles about climate issues in the academic literature, which is true. It’s something I have in common with Al Gore. (Heh.) Besides, I prefer to write in plain English for human beings rather than the 10 people who »

In this second installment of our conversation with Fred Siegel, we explore Fred’s roots as a “social democrat” as it was meant in the postwar era (or until, as Fred explains, the New Left destroyed it in the 1960s), and the evolution of his views because of the Vietnam War, his tutelage under Irving Howe at Dissent magazine, and his thoughts about the “Frankfurt School”—a leftist sect of the early »

Hard to know just what story merits top billing this weekend: Who Lost Yemen? Saving Private Bergdahl? Harry Reid entering the past tense? Or the continuing embarrassment of the Obama administration’s Iran diplomacy? (And these folks thought Reagan’s dealings with Iran were naive and irresponsible. . .) The world burns and the storm continues to gather. . . (Headline hat tip: RS.) Yes, it’s been a long photo lineup »

We recently spent two hours conversing with the great historian Fred Siegel, author of several fine books, including most recently The Revolt Against the Masses: How Liberalism Has Undermined the Middle Class (coming out soon in paperback with additional material). We range widely, Brian Lamb-style, over the whole of his life and career, and we’ll be rolling out highlights in short installments over the next few weeks. I had some »

Gallup is out with its annual poll of environmental issues. I’ll just go with their headline: In the U.S., Concern About Environmental Threats Eases Among the key findings: Consistent with the decline in worry about specific environmental problems, Americans have become more positive about the quality of the environment in recent years. If Americans perceive the environment to be in relatively good shape, it follows they would be less concerned about potential »

Two current controversies combine to suggest . . . a summer vacation idea! The Pacific Research Institute’s indefatigable leader Sally Pipes speculated some time ago that if the government continues to wreck health care with regulation and mandates, perhaps the answer would be offshore health clinics and hospitals—not like “offshore” banks in the Caymans or something, but offshore on ships, beyond the territorial boundaries of the United States, therefore making »

Glenn Reynolds (among others) likes to write about the “higher education bubble.” But maybe we’ve all missed higher education bubblegum? With all of the difficulties law schools are having right now with declining enrollment (applications off overall by more than 50 percent from 10 years ago), it is good to know that at least Touro Law School has it’s priorities straight: Billy Joel and the Law: A Touro Law Conference »

I recall taking in a British comedy sketch on TV over in London many years ago that featured the familiar device of an “interview” with a historical figure—in this case, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The deadpan interviewer asked, “I suppose you’ll be going around doing your usual miracles again—raising the dead, healing the sick, turning water into wine, and so forth? To which Jesus replies with a qualification: “Yes—but »

Power Line Trigger Warning! The following tweet is so ridiculous I could never have thought of it even after the best bottle of single malt in all of Scotland crossed with a supercharged tab of LSD. But it may trigger convulsions of laughter and/or disgust, and our liability insurance does not cover this: To which Jim Geraghty replied: Announcing that the sound of applause gives you anxiety takes courage & »

Our friends at the Claremont Institute’s “American Mind” interview series have a new package rolling out right now with Francis Fukuyama, most famous of course for The End of History and the Last Man, but in this case discussing his latest book Political Order and Political Decay. This first installment is 18 minutes long: And over at the Liberty Fund’s LibertyLawTalk series, Richard Reinsch converses with the Wall Street Journal‘s »

It seems there’s a new protest against campus political correctness from a left-liberal academic appearing almost every day, and today’s entry comes from Todd Gitlin, who got his board certification as head of the SDS back in the 1960s. (He’s now a professor at Columbia.) Writing at Tablet, Gitlin echoes much of what was said in yesterday’s notice here about the growing backlash from liberals. Gitlin is especially harsh on »

The climatistas have figured out how they’re going to win the climate change crusade: they’re going to mobilize Whole Foods customers and rile up foodies everywhere! From the Daily Mail: Climate Change Will Make Food TASTE Bad For those hoping global warming will bring more opportunities for a summer barbecue, there may be disappointment ahead – climate change is likely to make steaks and burgers far less appetising. In a »

You know campus radicalism—the kind that openly oppresses in the name of ending oppression—is going too far when even The Nation magazine takes notice. Nation writer Michelle Goldberg reports about the case of Northwestern University feminist film professor Laura Kipnes, who wrote an essay last month in the Chronicle of Higher Education entitled “Sexual Paranoia Strikes Academe.” It was a long and rambling piece that covered a lot of territory, »

It’s widely known that Chris Hughes, the entitled brat who bought The New Republic, has succeeded in wrecking the once-venerable flagship of American liberalism. But does the magazine have to descend to self-parody and infantilism? Check out this one: Dear Politicians: Stop Calling People “Taxpayers” Staff writer Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig thinks the term pejorative, or at least skews public discourse toward an unbalanced end. To which I can only say: »

As John noted yesterday, without question the most obnoxious story of the week was Starbucks proposing to have its baristas engage customers in a “conversation” about race, even though all such “conversations” amount to “agree with us or shut up.” I suspect underneath this is confirmation of my thesis that most majors in ethnic & gender studies find that Starbucks is their best employment opportunity with said degrees, so why »